Numerical Analysis of the Sugarcane Bagasse Drying by Cyclone

Drying is a simultaneous process of heat and mass transfer and dimensional changes. In recent years, cyclones have been used as a modern drying technology. In this sense, this research proposes a numerical study to describe drying of sugarcane bagasse, using the cyclone as dryer. Herein, it was adopted the Eulerian-Lagrangian model in steady state. The Reynolds stress model was considered to describe turbulence of the gas phase, while a transient lumped model was used to describe heat and mass transfer on the particulate phase (sugarcane bagasse). Particles were considered with irregular shape, composed of a binary mixture (solid part and water). The solution of the proposed model was obtained using the commercial software Ansys CFX 12. Results of the moisture content, temperature, dimension variation, and paths of particles, as well as velocity, pressure, and temperature distributions of the gas phase inside the cyclone are presented and analyzed. It has been found that the obtained components for axial and tangential velocity inside the cyclone are in good agreement with experimental data available in the literature, and that the drying kinetics, heating, dimensional variations, and residence time of particles are affected by the velocity of the gas phase, velocity of the particles, and the flow direction of gas and particles at the entrance of the feed duct.